Forensic profiling

Forensic profiling is generally conducted using datamining technology, as a means by which relevant patterns are discovered, and profiles are generated from large quantities of data.[1]

A distinction of forms of profiles that are used in a given context is necessary before evaluating applications of data mining techniques for forensic profiling.

The data available to law enforcement agencies are divided into two categories (Geradts & Sommer 2008, p. 15):

• Nominal data directly designates persons or objects (recidivists, intelligence files and suspect files, stolen vehicles or objects, etc.) and their relations. Nominal data may also be obtained in the framework of specific investigations, for instance a list of calls made with a mobile phone (card and/or phone) that cover a certain period of time, a list of people corresponding to a certain profile, or data obtained through surveillances;
• Crime data consist of traces that result from criminal activities: physical traces, other information collected at the scene, from witness or victims or some electronic traces, as well as reconstructed descriptions of cases (modus operandi, time intervals, duration and place) and their relations (links between cases, series).

• DNA profiling Used for the identification of individuals on the basis of their respective DNA profiles.[2]
• Digital Image Forensics. This covers: image source identification (which is based on specific characteristics of the image acquisition device or technology) and malicious post-processing or tampering (which aim is for instance to verify the integrity of particular features) (Popescu & Farid 2005).
• Illicit drug profiling, which refers to the systematic extraction and storage of chemical attributes of drugs seized in order to obtain indications on the manufacture and distribution processes, the size and the evolution of the market). (Terrettaz-Zufferey et al. 2007)
• Forensic Information Technology (forensic IT), which refers to the analysis of the digital traces that people leave when using information technology.[3]
• Offender profiling i.e. psychological profiling of the criminal.

The use of profiling techniques represents threats to the privacy of the individual and to the protection of fundamental freedoms. Indeed, criminal data, i.e., data which are collected and processed for suppressing criminal offences, often consists of personal data. One of the issues is the re-use of personal data collected within one criminal investigation for another purpose than the one for which it was collected.

Several methods-including technical, legal, and behavioral-are available to address some of the issues associated with forensic profiling. For instance, in Europe the European Convention on Human Rights provides a number of instruments for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data.

• Forensic identification
• Profiling (disambiguation)
• Use of social network websites in investigations

• Geradts, Zeno; Sommer, Peter (2006), "D6.1: Forensic Implications of Identity Management Systems" (PDF), FIDIS Deliverables, 6 (1)
• Geradts, Zeno; Sommer, Peter (2008), "D6.7c: Forensic Profiling" (PDF), FIDIS Deliverables, 6 (7c)
• Popescu, A.C.; Farid, H. (2005), "Exposing digital forgeries in color filter array interpolated images", IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 167 (53): 3948–3959, Bibcode:2005ITSP...53.3948P, doi:10.1109/TSP.2005.855406, S2CID 14552234, archived from the original on 2011-06-06, retrieved 2009-03-09
• Terrettaz-Zufferey, A.-L.; Ratle, F.; Ribaux, O.; Esseiva, P.; Khanevski, M. (2007), "Pattern Detection in Forensic Case Data Using Graph-Theory: Application to Heroin Cutting Agents" (PDF), Forensic Science International, 167 (2): 242–246, doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.06.059, PMID 16884878